One Friday in July I joined a Zoom cook-along with the Monday Morning Cooking Club ladies and thought this would be a fun way to make a ‘Life Changing’ cinnamon and apple pie from a Jewish family favourite recipe! The ‘Life Changing’ description was so named by Chrissie Swan on Australian national television and also became a Nigella Lawson favourite when she discovered their first cook book on a trip to Australia. I am a sucker for a new recipe and cooking programs and knew this ‘date’ was for me!
From their website “We are the Monday Morning Cooking Club, a unique sisterhood from Sydney, Australia. Our mission is to collect, test, curate, publish and share the best recipes from the best cooks in the global food-obsessed Jewish community”. I have been following their Instagram account for some time so it was nice to ‘meet’ the ladies as we all cooked along led by Lisa Goldberg and Natanya Eskin. Lisa describes themselves as ‘a group of Jewish home cooks who feed and nurture family and friends’.
The Not For Profit Monday Morning Cooking Club started with Lisa and a friend back in 2006 who wanted to put together ‘one good cook book from Jewish friends recipes’. Their call to the Jewish community for people to share traditional family recipes elicited an overwhelming response, enough for material for the book plus ideas for a second book. Four more enthusiastic ladies joined their testing kitchen. And so the Monday Morning Cooking Club began.
Each recipe is tested up to 6 times in their Cooking Club kitchen before being selected for one of their books. Added to the testing, they frequently have cook alongs online or podcasts and also generously share a selection of recipes on their website.
There are now four books available on their website, the latest being ‘And Now for Something Sweet’. I noticed a full index of recipes from all four books on their website which is amazing! All profits from book sales are donated to charities, far too many to mention here. (https://mondaymorningcookingclub.com.au)
The ladies receive hundreds of recipes, favourites resurrected from scraps of paper and willingly shared from family traditions. Some recipes have skipped a generation when Jewish people have fled world wars unable to take personal belongings and recipe books but have resurfaced lovingly reconstructed by their children or grandchildren from family traditional meals in the new country.
What started as contributions from traditional Jewish dishes from every corner of the globe has now morphed into anthologies of treasured recipes from Jewish immigrants who have made Australia their home combining traditions from the mother country and their new lives in Australia. ‘The Jewish community are obsessed with food’, says Lisa so it’s not hard to believe that this could be an inexhaustible anthropological account of Jewish family lives and the food they share.
The Jewish tradition of Friday night get togethers of family and friends come alive in the books produced by the ladies. ‘Fressing, the joy of eating without restraint is also the joy of food’ says Lisa. Chicken is well known as ‘Jewish penicillin’ and every Jewish household has their own family favourite dish made with this stock item. Many food traditions and festivals are described in their books adding special meaning to the recipes shared. Looking through the recipe index I can see so many favourites!
The ‘Life changing’ cinnamon and apple pie from book number one ‘Monday Morning Cooking Club’ was delicious. I seriously could not wait until it had cooled down to try a slice with a dollop of cream! Cook’s privilege right? It was a cross between a cake, shortbread and a pie. The cook along was fun in ‘real time’ and the smell of cinnamon and baked apple pie lingered in the house for the rest of the day whilst I happily spent the afternoon looking over their podcasts, social media entries, TV and audio presentations and dreamed of which book I will purchase first and organise myself for another happy cook along with the ladies of the Monday Morning Cooking Club.
References: www.mondaymorningcookingclub.com.au
Instagram @Mondaymorningcc
Facebook Monday Morning Cooking Club
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